How clean are your barn clothes?

[MissusS]

While getting ready to go to the farm this morning, getting dressed in the dark, picking up clothes and sniffing them before deciding what to wear… it occurred to me I might be a wee bit lackadaisical when it comes to my standards for what I wear to the barn.

Keeping in mind that I only ride one horse, and am by no means a performance athlete, and that I go to the barn 2-5 times per week, I wonder if my habits are past a level of acceptable. I don’t do chores aside from picking my own horses’ poo/pee or picking out a stall if there’s a mess already before I use it. Since it’s winter I wear many layers.

My routine/habits:

1. Clean socks and underwear always. I will not re-use these items between washes. I also have about 8 million pairs of socks and an equal amount of underwear.
2. Clean undershirt/tank top. I also have (too) many of these.
3. Breeches/riding tights: Sometimes clean, sometimes worn once… even worn twice if I’m desperate. Max is three wears before washing. Two if I’ve ridden in them, three if I went to the barn but decided not to ride in them once I got there.
4. Carhartt work pants overtop of breeches: I have two pairs of these and will wear them … probably way more than I should. Typically 3-5 wears before they hit the laundry, depending on the level of crud they have accumulated. Note that I don’t ride in them, I wear them over top until I tack up, then put back on once pony is eating her post-ride snack.
5. Clean, or possibly 2nd wear for whatever shirt I put on over top of my undershirt. In the summer I will not wear a sunshirt twice due to the amount I sweat. In the winter my sweating is minimal.
6. Down vest that gets washed once a month or so… or sooner if I notice it’s smelly or got really dirty.
7. Winter jacket that gets washed once every month or … something. Multiple times a winter, certainly, but that’s not saying much since winter is basically October through April inclusive here.
8. Gloves/scarf/toque get washed… once a month ish, usually along with the down vest, whenever that gets done.

So… how disgusted are you? Or do my habits generally align with yours?

[atr]

I would say about the same. I do get a couple of wears out of my sports bras though.

[colorfan]

Home jeans get washed once a week need it or not haha, Never wash the gloves, they are heavy winter, think sledding, gloves, they would wreck if washed. Wash the ear warmer once a year unless dropped in fresh manure or ?
My heavy winter coat gets a spring wash and put away for next winter, again, its heavy, frequent washes would shorten its life. I have a heavyweight fleece that probably should get washed more often than it does.
I have heavy insulated winter snow pants, pushing 15yrs, never washed them. Outdoor vests will get washed as needed, in the winter when they go over shirts and under coats, once a season, when it warms and they go directly outside with no jacket over, depending on how dirty they get. If something got dirty enough to smell or have obvious ‘stuff’ on the outside, sure it would get washed.
Its only town clothes and undie things that get worn once and washed.

[pick_a_pony]

Seems normal to me as it is pretty close to my routine. But my jackets get washed more often as I just cannot stand the smell if they have a reek to them. And dirt floor barn and horses in way too much for my taste does mean a smell to the barn that isn’t there in the summer.

[Janet]

You wash things far more often than I do.

[MissusS]

Share with us your wash schedule! I am so curious to hear how others do it. I go by smell first, then by how gross I think things might be if someone who is not nose-blind caught a whiff of me…

I know when I was younger I was blown away that people washed jeans far less than I do (I used to wash every 1-2 wears… now it’s more every 3-4 wears in the winter). I have a propensity for swamp crotch in the summertime, though so… TMI?

[MissusS]

OH and a secondary question!!! What do you do with clothes that you will re-wear? Most frequently I drape them over a convenient object (often a spare suitcase that always seems to reside in my spare bedroom) or… leave them on the floor in a heap but not in the laundry basket… which drives DH nuts.

[SMK]

Mine heavily depends on the weather when I’m out riding. Here, rain means mud and mud means washing. Beyond that, I just go by the amount of dirt on them. If they’re dirty enough for me to not want them sitting around until the next time I ride, then it’s time to wash.

I figure each article of clothing I have only has so many washes in it, so I’m saving money, material, and water by only washing when necessary. And if someone wants to judge me, I’ll just swipe my pants and throw the resulting mud ball at them.

[sascha]

@MissusS

What do you do with clothes that you will re-wear?

You know those 4 hook hang over the stall thingies? They work perfectly on the back of a door as long as you don’t ever need to fully close the door.

Washing sched - whatever is next to my skin is clean. In winter pants may get worn a couple of times though IF they don’t get sweaty. As the clothing gets farther away from actually touching my skin, it gets washed less often. When I taught a lot, I was absolutely anal even about my outer layers. Now, not so much. My stupid black (YES I AM THAT STUPID!) riding coat will not stay looking clean more than 10 minutes in a barn. I am too angry at it to care. It gets washed at the end of the season and wiped when somehorse spits on it.

[whitehouse1988]

Ok, t shirt and underwear from sleep throw on something from the dirty clothes pile. Go feed and then all get washed. Barn coat washed every year or so. Carhartt coveralls 30 years never washed. Evening chores…. What ever I wore to work that day ( my work uniform is t shirt, carhartt sweatshirt and jeans). If the work clothes go to the barn, they automatically get tossed in the dirty clothes basket. ( to be dug out the next morning) I also take a bubble bath every morning before work, and after barn chores. Complete with lit candles. I go through a lot of candles and bubbles.

[GreyDes]

Ha! Ha! I don’t think anyone wants to know

My underwear and socks are clean. Let’s leave it at that…

[showy]

Ooo I was just explaining this to my SO last week as this is our first winter living together. Well winter is a stretch of the word since I’m in Atlanta.

If I didn’t sweat, I’ll rewear my bra and zip up undershirt twice.

Sweatshirts get worn until dirty. 3-4x if I haven’t needed my coat (which is most likely).

Barn coat gets washed at the end of winter. It lives in my car wrapped in a reusable grocery bag to keep the smell at bay. I keep it in my car because it’s always 10 degrees colder at the barn than my house and I’ll roll up to ride freezing!

Breeches get washed every time. I have yet to find a more comfortable riding set up than commando so that’s where we are

[Paint_Party]

@sascha

My stupid black (YES I AM THAT STUPID!) riding coat will not stay looking clean more than 10 minutes in a barn.

My stupid black (yes, I am also that stupid) breeches act like a gauge of how dirty I really get at the barn most days. My tan breeches lie to me, but on the black ones I can see every hair, every slobber, every whiff of arena dirt. Nonetheless, I still wait to wash them until I’ve used them a couple of times.

[Dr_Doolittle]

Honestly? Washing wears out clothes and shortens their usable lifetime.

I wash my underwear every time, socks? In the winter, I can go two days in the same pair of socks – breeches? They are washed when they get dirty, turned inside out because I wear silicone full seats. Air dried.

Coats and vests are washed when they get dirty, so maybe every four or five wearings?

I don’t think I’ve ever washed my Carhartts – maybe once? I really don’t wear them that often since our winters have been mild, so maybe two or three times a year.

In the summer, shirts are washed more often because I sweat, but I am a remarkably non-stinky person.

Judge away…

[luvmyhackney]

So I work from home and keep my horses at home so I wash my barn clothes way less often than most of this thread.

I wear fresh underwear, sports bra and socks daily, other than that my barn sweats get washed every other week, Winter overalls once a season and coat if extremely coated with grossness.

My first layer is generally workout clothes as I do barn chores, work out, shower and change for work. My breeches get washed every couple weeks if I’m riding regularly, otherwise I wash them monthly.

[OverandOnward]

OP, you are me. When you pick out your barn clothes, anyway.

The thing that sometimes gives me pause is that I tend to do barn in the morning (reason: hot climate), but for time management reasons, would prefer to roll right into any necessary errands that day. There is this evaluation moment around that. Business meetings … I have some clean-up strategies for that.

[MissusS]

I 100% will go to the grocery store straight after the barn. I do evaluate how smelly I am, but rarely am deterred. Today I went into a restaurant to Pick up food for lunch on the way home. I keep my distance from people and get sideways looks but try to efficiently get my errands done to get home and change clothes and relax.

My non horsey husband with a very acute sense of smell does not complain but will not hesitate to speak the truth when I ask if I am smelly

[TWH_Girl]

I do align with OP for the most part. Though I apparently walked around Walgreens today with Strongid smeared all over my butt so those pants were washed when I got home!

I definitely get a few more wears out of barn clothes in winter than in sweaty, stinky summer!

[TWH_Girl]

Isn’t that what closet floors are for?! That’s where my NQR for the washer barn clothes go!

[punchy]

Funny timing…I just had this conversation with my friend while walking today (on a wet, slushy towpath trail)

Friend:so are those jeans stained, or what?
Me: well sort of. I mean they’re barn jeans so
F: so you don’t wash them ever?
M: well sometimes, but what’s the point? They just get dirty again. Besides, they are so old, they won’t last for too many more washings.
F: so buy more
M: ya but you don’t go buy jeans for the barn, because you just trash them right away. Besides, I’m picky about jeans.
F: you’re picky? Your jeans are stained and ripped and you’re picky about how they look?
M: no no not about how they look. I’m picky about how they feel. Theses are super comfortable, because they’re so old they’re nice and soft. It look me like 15 years to get them broke in nice like this.

Plus, I was wearing my favorite heavy mustard yellow sweater with moth holes in it